Two summers ago, I was invited to go over to Scotland and train with a youth program for a couple of weeks. The team was called Dundee United and they were part of the Scottish Premier League, the best soccer league in Scotland. Seeing this as a once in a lifetime chance, I decided I had to go. In this program, teenagers are trained rigorously for years and either make the professional team or are told they will not be able to play with the pros. I went to Dundee, Scotland and trained twice a day for two weeks straight. The players I trained with were all very good and all had one goal, to make the first team. My goal on the trip was just to get a better understanding of the style of soccer people play in Europe. I did pretty well throughout the two weeks, but I was always a little intimidated by the other players because they were getting paid to play and I just felt like an outsider. I guess that kind of held me back from being able to play my absolute best. When my time in Scotland was over, I left thinking that was my one opportunity to make it and I blew it. .
The next year went by and I kept doing my same routine of school and soccer, not really thinking about the Dundee trip anymore. About a month ago, I was sitting in my living room trying to find something on the television. I flipped to the soccer channel to see who was playing, and, surprisingly enough, Dundee United was playing a team called Glasgow Rangers. Glasgow Rangers is one of the best teams in Scotland, and Dundee United is one of the bottom teams in the league. So I decided to watch a little bit of the game to see how it was. Sure enough, I came to recognize four of the Dundee United players. I had trained with them when they were still in the youth program trying to make the first team. I watched the entire game and saw how those players from Dundee weren't intimidated at all by the Rangers, even though they were outmatched.
